I live in rural Alaska, mostly around my area its the smaller Black bear, the larger Brown bears are not very common around here.
I used to haul with me a huge stainless scoped Ruger Redhawk 44mag. when I went fishing, now I carry a 10mm Glock with a hi cap magazine of my own reloads. I believe its better to have a lot of bullets than just a couple of heavy ones that have to hit a certain place.
But arguing there is no comparison with Black bears and Alaskan Kodiak grizzlies, the ones I have seen are like something from Jurassic park. Grenades, got to make some grenades....
Our family of six lived in the Fairbanks/North Pole area of Alaska for four years. When we took the kids fishing we didn’t have a rifle... but we had bear bells and we sang show tunes. Two adults and four kids singing from “Annie” scared away everything except the mosquitoes.
That being said... we always went back in the house to sleep.